Human Development and Nature vs Nurture

Human Development

• Focuses on the scientific study of systematic processes of change and stability in people
• Life-Span Development: the concept of lifelong development, a process that can be studied scientifically
• Life-Span Perspective: highlights development as a lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual process, involving growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss.
• Physical Development: involves growth of the body and brain, including sensory capabilities, motor skills, and health.
• Cognitive Development: encompasses learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, and creativity.
• Psychosocial Development: focuses on emotions, personality, and social relationships.

Nature and Nurture

• Human Development: a scientific study of how people change and remain stable throughout their lives
• Behavioral Genetics: a scientific field that studies the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to behavioral differences among individuals.
• Heritability: the extent to which differences among people are attributable to genetic differences
• Twin Studies, Adoption Studies, and Family Studies: research methods to assess the degree of heritability
• Gene-Environment Interaction: how the effects of genes depend on the environment and how the environment influences the expressions of genes
• Gene-Environment Correlations: three kinds: Passive, Reactive, and Active
• Passive: children's genotypes influence the environment they are placed in
• Reactive: children's genotypes evoke different reactions from other people
• Active: children seek out or create environments that fit with their genotypes
• Shared Environmental Influences: experiences common to all members of a family, e.g., parenting style
• Non-Shared Environmental Influences: unique experiences within a family, e.g., parental favoritism

Research Methods

• Case Study: a detailed examination of a particular individual or group to explore unusual problems, treatments, and developmental issues
• Ethnographic Studies: systematically describe cultures in their entire range of customs, beliefs, and behavior
• Correlational Studies: assess relationships between traits or behaviors without manipulating variables
• Experiments: studies that manipulate variables to reveal causal relationships

Developmental Research Designs

• Cross-Sectional Studies: compare people of different ages at a single point in time to determine if there are developmental changes
• Longitudinal Studies: track changes across many years to observe consistent patterns of development
• Sequential Studies combine cross-sectional and longitudinal designs to examine age-related changes and cohort effects

Developmental Theories

• Psychosexual Theory by Sigmund Freud: proposes that stages of personality development are determined by stages of early childhood's psychosexual development, including the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego
• Psychosocial Theory by Erik Erikson: proposes that development involves particular crises that must be resolved for healthy development; includes crises relevant to different stages of life
• Cognitive Development Theory by Jean Piaget: suggests that children's thinking changes through distinct stages; it includes Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational stages.
• Social Cognitive Theory by Albert Bandura: emphasizes that people's beliefs about their ability to perform a behavior, their self-efficacy, plays a key role in their motivation toward and completion of goals
• Sociocultural Theory by Lev Vygotsky: describes that complex mental processes are not only developed within the individual but also socially through interactions with more knowledgeable others

Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood Stages

• Each stage has a distinctive approach and characteristics

Critical Issues During Prenatal Development

• Women of normal weight are less likely than overweight women to have birth complications
• Overweight mothers have a risk of having longer deliveries, needing more health care services, gestational diabetes, cesarean delivery, birth defects, etc.
• Miscarriage: spontaneous loss of pregnancy before the 20th week
• Stillbirth: loss of a pregnancy after the 20th week
• Teratogens: substances that can cause birth defects; examples include drugs, alcohol, medications, and environmental toxins

Cognitive Development

• Assimilation: applying existing schemes to new information.
• Accommodation: modifying existing schemes to fit new information.
• Equilibration: achieving balance between assimilation and accommodation.
• Children aged between 2 and 5 years old actively explore and understand the world around them.
• Preoperational stage: children's thinking is dominated by their own perspective (ages 2-7).

Explore the intricacies of human development through the lens of both lifespan perspectives and the nature versus nurture debate. This quiz delves into physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development, as well as how genetic and environmental factors shape behavior. Test your knowledge on the systematic processes of change and stability in individuals across their lifespan.